Wednesday, May 4 2005 17:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The cross examination of Bilkis Bano, the prime witness in the case of her alleged gang rape and murder of her family members during the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, today (May 4, 2005) concluded in a special court in-camera, defence lawyer said.

Defence lawyer Golapsingh Solanki said that during the cross examination Bilkis was questioned about the various accused and the role played by them.

Special public prosecutor R K Shah said that the defence concluded her cross-examination and she was questioned if there was any previous enmity between her family and that of the accused.

"To this Bilkis replied that there was no previous enmity between her family and the accused," he said.

Solanki was the third defence lawyer to cross -examine Bilkis. Earlier, she was questioned by advocate Harshad Ponda and S K Jain.

Bilkis had earlier identified in the court 12 accused, who were allegedly involved in raping her and killing her family members.

Of the 20 accused, eight are charged with shielding the guilty. Two are a doctor-couple who performed the post-mortem of the victims while six other accused are police officers.

On January 13, the court had framed charges against the accused for their alleged complicity in attacking a group of 17 members of minority community, including Bilkis Bano, in Devgarh Baria village of Dahod district in Gujarat on March 3, 2002.

Following the Supreme Court's directive, the trial was shifted to Maharashtra from Gujarat.